


Lost in Translation

by Sanwall



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: 5+1 Things, Canon Compliant, Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-29 23:29:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18303902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sanwall/pseuds/Sanwall
Summary: Five times language wasn’t enough and one time Geordi thought they wouldn’t need language but totally did.





	Lost in Translation

**Author's Note:**

> The untranslatable words are from this [mentalfloss article](http://mentalfloss.com/article/50698/38-wonderful-foreign-words-we-could-use-english) and this [rocketlanguages article](https://www.rocketlanguages.com/blog/20-of-the-worlds-most-beautiful-untranslatable-words/), I’m not a linguist and I don’t claim to know how accurate the description of these words are.  
> Playing fast and loose with the canon - contains some spoilers for season 5 finale “Time’s Arrow”, although can it be considered a spoiler twenty years after it aired? Join me in this petition to let Guinan curse.
> 
> Many thanks to [rabidchild67](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rabidchild67/pseuds/rabidchild67) for betareading! Any and all remaining mistakes are my own.

  **Koi No Yokan (Japanese)**

_The sense upon first meeting a person that the two of you are, inevitably, going to fall in love at some point._

* * *

 Geordi fell in love all the time. He fell in love with new technology and he fell in love with people he read about and he fell in love with people he met. It didn’t mean he dated much; Geordi liked people and it was easy to get carried away for a bit, but in the end it was always easier to go back to his manuals and his warp core than to put his heart on the line.

“I suppose, as Chief Engineer, I’m responsible for your health now,” Geordi said and set his hand on Data’s shoulder, to guide him to sit. He didn’t especially like popping Data’s scalp open to run a manual diagnostic, but he’d endure a little discomfort to make sure his friend was all right. “I should have a talk with Beverly, improve my bedside manner.”

“Your concern is noted, Geordi,” Data said as he sat down and tilted his chin down to make it easy for Geordi to access the panel at the back of his head. “But I have no health to speak of, merely functions. So-called bedside manners are not necessary in this instance.”

Geordi laughed and got down to work. Data was so easy to like, Geordi had always thought. From the very first time they’d met, Geordi had seen how he fought to understand humans and, in a way, that made Data more human than some people. Even when his head was cracked open to reveal blinking lights and gleaming circuitry, to Geordi’s artificial vision it seemed like a map for him to discover.

In hindsight, Geordi should have known from the start that Data would come to posit a very Geordi-specific problem.

* * *

  **Mamihlapinatapai (Yaghan language of Tierra del Fuego)**

_That look  two people share when they’re both wishing the other would do something that they both want, but neither want to do._

* * *

 He tried his best not to project feelings on Data. It was hard, sometimes, when Geordi felt Data understood him so completely, but Geordi knew that Data wasn’t human and didn’t have feelings - or, at least, didn’t have feelings like humans did. He had no hormones that could make him cry, but nevertheless, walking down the hallway to main engineering, Geordi got the acute sense that Data was sad.

“Just because some so-called scientist doesn’t consider you a sentient being doesn’t mean you aren’t,” he said and clapped Data on the shoulder. He was solid under Geordi’s hand, warm in the way of a computer in use but nothing else about him seemed like a computer, really. “Chin up!”

Data lifted his chin demonstrably, and Geordi laughed.

“I fail to understand the purpose of raising my chin,” Data said, without missing a beat. Geordi shook his head.

“I know you know idioms, Data. Don’t try that old horse with me!”

They reached the doors to engineering, and although the sensors were acute and quick, Geordi hesitated a step while they slid open. Data didn’t, but he noticed Geordi’s hesitance, and slowed, too.

“I have not attempted to use an aged equine of any kind, Geordi,” Data said, and if Geordi didn’t know better, he’d have said that a smile was tugging at Data’s mouth.

They looked at each other for a beat, and for that beat, Geordi wondered if he ought to say something. Data looked like he was expecting it, but Geordi didn’t know what to say, and besides, he shouldn’t project.

So Geordi just grinned and clapped Data on the shoulder again, so they could walk in side by side.

* * *

**Ya’arburnee (Arabic)**

_Literally, “may you bury me”. The hope that you will die before someone you love, because you cannot stand to live without them._

* * *

 Sometimes, if Geordi had dipped too deep into Guinan’s stash, he would become maudlin.

“I told him,” he told Guinan over the bar, holding onto his glass like it was a lifeline. “I told him that I always thought he’d outlive me and- and then I figured, well, so there’s no telling when he’s- he’s, you know, thrown back in time or whatever, could be well after I’m dead- and then it _happened!_ And I couldn’t stop it, and, and I don’t know what I would’ve done if I hadn’t been able to put his head back on, Guinan.”

“But you were able,” Guinan said, arms crossed and listening dutifully, but with that certain air of resigned superiority that was her specialty. “So what are you crying about, Geordi?”

Geordi considered refuting the crying bit, but instead he knocked the edge of his VISOR to the edge of his glass. The sound was duller than he expected, and it made his vision jolt for a fraction of a second.

“I’m just saying,” he said. “I’m used to the idea that he’s gonna outlive me. I don’t like the thought of outliving him.”

“I don’t suppose he likes the thought of outliving you either,” Guinan said and reached for the bottle. “Frankly, that shit grows old pretty fast.”

* * *

**Kilig (Tagalog)**

_Refers to the butterflies in your stomach that you typically feel when something romantic happens, or the exhilaration you feel during an exciting or romantic experience._

* * *

 Ensign Taggart didn’t go down on one knee to propose, but she did put the ring in the drink so that Ensign Ogoye almost choked on it. Disaster was averted, however, and all of Ten-Forward got to see the happy couple embrace as betrothed to one another, under applause and cheering.

Geordi barely had time to grin and say “Aw, that’s nice,” before his and Data’s communicators chirped in tandem.

“All senior officers to the bridge,” Picard’s voice sounded. Geordi sighed and clapped his badge to confirm he’d heard it, and he and Data rose to their feet at the same time.

“Race you to the bridge?” Geordi said, bumping his shoulder to Data’s.

“I am considerably faster than you,” Data replied, and Geordi was so shocked that he barely kept up as Data strode out of Ten-Forward.

* * *

They hadn’t been on the bridge more than five minutes before it became clear that they were more needed in engineering, and Geordi nearly asked Data to carry him there, if he was so fast. He didn’t much feel like explaining the inside joke to the staff though, so he just quickened his steps.

Seven and then some hours later, when the crisis was averted, Geordi had to pull his VISOR off to rub at his eyes. He knew, rationally, that it wasn’t his eyes that were tired because he didn’t use them to see, but they still felt dry and wam, and it felt good to press the back of his hand against them.

“Geordi, you have been awake for more than twenty-four hours,” he heard Data say, and Geordi clicked his visual aid into place to look at him. He looked like Data always did, serious and intent, not a hair out of place, with that warm aura around him that only Geordi could see.

“Yeah,” Geordi said, voice hoarse. “Yeah, I’ll send everyone home.”

“You should send yourself home, too,” Data said, as Geordi waved at his tired but relieved engineers to go off duty.

He shook his head when the last of them had exited. “I want to keep some things under supervision, ‘til I’m sure we’re well out of the woods.” He saw Data tilt his head and open his mouth, and he added, “Don’t. I know you know I’m not talking about literal woods.”

Data’s head tilted back up. “Geordi,” he said again. “I can supervise any and all systems for as long as you deem necessary. You need sleep. I do not.”

“Alright, tell you what,” Geordi said and sat down by the jeffries tube, tucking himself in in the nook and making it comfortable. “I’ll take a power nap right here and you can wake me when there are any developments.”

He must have been more tired than he realized, because as soon as he plucked the VISOR off to hold in his hand, he dropped off to sleep.

* * *

When Geordi woke up, it was slowly. He didn’t panic - he was warm, and he could feel the outline of his VISOR in his hand, so he sat up and put it on. His other hand was tangled in something, and when he looked down he saw it was because someone had settled a quilt over him.

Geordi looked up and saw Data by the main computer terminal, head bowed and working. It made him feel glad to see him, relieved and safe.

“Good morning, Geordi,” Data said without looking up. “You have slept for 6.21 hours. There have been no negative developments during that time.”

“That’s good to hear,” Geordi said and pulled the quilt down and bunched it in his lap. He had no idea where Data had found the quilt, and he had no idea how Data had even come to think of it.

He thought, _I’m in love with that damn android._

* * *

**Firgun (Hebrew)**

_It describes a generosity of spirit and the unselfish joy that something good has happened or might happen to someone else, or the genuine, unselfish feeling of delight or pride in someone else's accomplishment. The infinitive verb form of the word, lefargen, means to make someone feel good without any ulterior motives._

* * *

 “There’s a word in Czech for a feeling, _litost,”_ Geordi said, and Data dutifully raised his eyes from the computer screen in his room to look at him, sitting on the couch that Data kept mostly for visitors’ sakes. “There was this 20th century writer that described this feeling as the state of torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery.”

“Interesting,” Data said. “There is no equivalent word in Standard. Linguists and sociologists have theorized that such untranslatable words, if you will, reflect certain outlooks and needs of a particular culture. Is there perhaps something inherent in the twentieth century Czech culture that invited _litost?”_

“I don’t know about that, Data,” Geordi said and breathed in deeply. “Would you mind coming over here, I have to tell you something and I’d prefer it if you sat down.”

“I do not mind,” Data said, and Geordi watched him walk over to the couch with that controlled grace he always exhibited. “Although I do not understand how my sitting down has any bearing on you telling me something.”

“It’s a- it means I’m about to tell you something significant,” Geordi said and flattened his palms on his knees. Data sat down beside him, a touch closer than Geordi would have preferred, maybe, but then again, Data wouldn’t find it inappropriate. “I just- I don’t want you to look at me differently.”

“I am only capable of looking at you one way,” Data said, kindly. Geordi considered himself able to pick up on nuances like that. He smiled and kept his face down, only peripherally aware of Data through the aura around him.

“What I’m about to say is- I want you to know that I don’t expect anything from you, alright? This is just- I need to tell you, because I feel it would be unethical of me to keep it from you.”

“Go on, please,” Data said, when Geordi fell silent and clenched his hands into fists. He sighed.

“I’m in love with you, Data. You’re my best friend, and I’m in love with you. I can’t help it.”

All of a sudden, Geordi wished screwing his eyes shut would make his VISOR shut down. It didn’t, of course, so he just put his hand across it to disrupt the visual information.

He heard Data shift beside him and say, “I have been given to understand that humans generally cannot help their feelings.”

Geordi chuckled and rubbed his forehead. “Yeah, no, we can’t,” he admitted. “And they usually go over by themselves but- but I don’t know, Data. I’ve been living with this one for a while.”

“I have noticed no change in your behavior toward me,” Data said. “Is it your wish that these feelings cease?”

“Well, yeah,” Geordi said and lowered his hand. His lungs ached, but he still drew in another deep breath. “I can’t go around being in love with someone who doesn’t love me the same way back.”

“I believe your conjecture is, in part, erroneous,” Data said. Geordi wasn’t in the mood to parse the meaning of Data’s words, but then again, Data’s speech was a kind of a language of its own, and Geordi had taken care to learn it.

“I’ll bite. What part of what I just said is wrong?”

Data paused before replying, tilting his head to the side like he did when he was calculating something. All of a sudden, Geordi’s heart, which he’d done a great job of keeping on its heels, was beating loudly and uncomfortably, high up in his throat.

“You may be right when you state that I cannot love you as you love me. I am an android incapable of emotions.”

“That’s not what-” Geordi said, but Data kept going, like he didn’t know how to stop.

“However, I have considered forming a romantic attachment to you, and I would even say that I _want_ a romantic attachment to you, insofar as I am capable of wanting.”

“Insofar- wait, wait, you’re saying you’re in love with me too?”

“I am saying,” Data said and put his hand on Geordi’s knee in a gesture that felt completely natural, “that I want to be in love with you, and if you consider that enough of a basis for a romantic attachment, then-”

“Well, hell, Data,” Geordi interrupted and turned his entire body toward him. He felt a little like he couldn’t breathe. “That’s all I could ask.”

Data blinked, and Geordi could hear his breathing, the mechanical cooling system that sounded so much like the real thing. Without thinking about it, he reached out and set his hand on Data’s neck, while Data didn’t move and regarded him steadily under white eyelashes.

Data’s skin was smooth under his palm - he didn’t grow stubble, Geordi knew, but still he ran his thumb against Data’s jaw. Geordi breathed out shakily, good old-fashioned human breathing for oxygen purposes, and leaned in to press a tentative kiss to his lips.

For a fraction of a moment, Data stayed absolutely still. Then he tilted his head to fit their mouths together, and automatically, Geordi shifted closer.

Geordi had watched Data for years, and he’d even found his gaze slipping down to his mouth on occasion. The movements of Data’s tongue and lips were truly unparallelled, mimicking so closely that of humans that his speech was indistinguishable from theirs, but Geordi hadn’t ever stopped to consider what Data’s lips would feel like against his- what Data’s tongue would feel like in his mouth.

He wasn’t exactly keen on stopping to describe it, but he enjoyed it greatly. He even allowed himself to pull Data’s lower lip in between his teeth and tugged, lightly. Data made a noise in his throat, and Geordi hadn’t even known he could do that. He pulled back a fraction, bringing Data into focus.

“What was that noise?” he asked, delightedly. Data blinked.

“What noise?” he said, and Geordi laughed. Either Data was messing with him or he had truly just made a noise he wasn’t aware of, and either possibility was great.

“It’s nothing,” he said and slid his hand down Data’s shoulder to cup his elbow. “So, how do you like kissing?”

“I find kissing agreeable in general,” Data said and mirrored Geordi’s movement, sliding his other hand up Geordi’s shoulder. His thumb came to rest against the edge of Geordi’s uniform collar, and the light touch made a shiver run through him. “Kissing you in particular, is more than agreeable. I would classify it as-” Here Data tilted his head and looked up to the side before he looked back to Geordi. “-highly enjoyable.”

“Highly enjoyable, huh?” Geordi said, grinning around the boisterous feeling of happiness gathered in his chest and shifted just a little bit closer. “Well, right back at you, Data!”

* * *

**+1**

* * *

 “I mean, we don’t have to, if you don’t want to. In fact, we absolutely shouldn’t, if you don’t want to,” Geordi said, willing Data to believe him despite the hitch in his voice. Data, who was sitting on Geordi’s bed, regarded him steadily, absolutely unbothered by the fact that Geordi was shirtless and embarrassingly, visibly aroused.

“Should we not take your wants into consideration as well?” Data said and flicked his gaze down Geordi’s body before he returned it to his face. Geordi was glad that his complexion hid the violent blush that was now spreading down his chest.

“Not in this case,” Geordi said, mustering up as much conviction as he could. “If one party wants to have sex and the other doesn’t, the one that doesn’t is always in the right. Your moral program doesn’t tell you that?”

“I am, of course, aware of the reprehensible nature of rape, Geordi,” Data said. He shifted his hand from his lap to the bed between them, and Geordi hated himself for wondering if it was intentional, a calculated move on Data’s part. “However, this is a relationship in which I have a vested interest, and I want to make you happy.”

“That’s- That’s good to hear, Data,” Geordi said and couldn’t stop himself from putting his hand on Data’s knee and squeezing. Data smiled, which emboldened him further. “But having sex with you when you don’t want to have sex wouldn’t make me happy. In fact, it would make me unhappy. Like, couldn’t-live-with-myself levels of unhappy.”

Data frowned, and Geordi wanted to smooth out the lines with a kiss. Instead he waited.

“I do not desire sex as most humans do, and I have never felt the urge to satisfy a sexual need by myself, like some humans without partners,” Data said thoughtfully, and Geordi had to banish the notion of Data looking up masturbation, and then perhaps experimenting with it, thoughtfully and carefully like he did all his experiments. Geordi was trying to get rid of his boner, dammit, not make it worse.

“That’s okay, Data,” Geordi said and shifted his legs in an unsubtle attempt to hide. It only made things worse. “I mean, I know how to satisfy my sexual needs by myself without a partner. You don’t have to-”

“Geordi,” Data interrupted, with an intonation of seriousness that had Geordi sit up a little. “I appreciate your concern for my well-being, but I have to insist that you allow me to express my line of reasoning in its entirety.”

“Sorry,” Geordi said, cursing himself for apparently being into that. Everything Data did nowadays seemed to do it for him. It was an damn nuisance, really. “Go on, Data.”

“I am uncertain if language allows me to communicate my, for lack of a better word, feelings on the subject of sex,” Data said, a little softer. “I do not object to sex, even if I do not desire it. I have found it enjoyable in the past, and if my experiences with kissing you is any indication, I will enjoy sex with you to an even higher degree.”

“Oh,” Geordi said, and there was definitely no hiding how into _that_ he was. “So you-”

“I would like to have sex with you, if you have no objections,” Data said.

Geordi breathed in and then out, slowly. “No,” he said, unable to keep from grinning. “No, Data, I have no objections.”

“Please inform me if something I do is not to your liking,” Data said, and Geordi was about to reply, _you too,_ but Data set his hand on the back of his head and leaned in for a kiss, and Geordi figured, they’d have time to talk later. Or hell, they could talk during, but right now he only wanted to get his hands on Data and get his point across with actions rather than words.

He kissed Data back and wondered what the fastest way was to get that uniform off someone else.

* * *

**EPILOGUE**

* * *

“Excuse me, Geordi,” Data said. Although he felt no discomfort, he had learned that humans often grew restless after the act of sex and wanted to wash themselves, and Data found that he wanted to bring it up before Geordi decided to leave. “You will have to disentangle your arm so I can remove myself.”

Data registered that Geordi’s arm wound itself tighter around his waist, where they lay in Data’s bed with Data’s torso on top of Geordi and Geordi’s legs on top of Data’s. Data had not yet quite mapped out the configuration.

“Do you have to remove yourself?” Geordi mumbled into Data’s shoulder. His dermal layer registered the damp gust of air, which triggered a pleasurable sensation at the back of Data’s neck. He had never sensed that before.

“I do not,” Data said truthfully. “I thought that perhaps you would want to remove yourself.”

“I do not,” Geordi said, and Data thought that there was an expression of joy in Geordi’s voice. He cherished it, and without deciding to, he clutched Geordi closer too.

“I have understood that it is customary for partners to sleep together,” Data said, accessing his stores of knowledge on romantic affairs. “However, it is also customary to adorn sleepwear, is it not?”

“I mean it’s not obligatory,” Geordi said and shifted, sensuously, against Data. Curious, Data peered down their intertwined bodies - perhaps his information on the refractory time for adult human males was outdated. Geordi, however, showed no signs of arousal other than clinging closely to Data, so Data filed this under the rubric of “Things romantic partners do” subcategory: Data-and-Geordi. He thought he liked it.

Geordi shifted again, so that he rested his chin on Data’s chest. His VISOR had been placed on Data’s bedside table, so even though his eyes were half-open, the milky blue of them visible through his eyelashes, Data knew Geordi wasn’t looking at him.

“You good?” Geordi asked. He was shifting his hand up and down Data’s arm - in a motion not unlike when Data petted Spot. Data filed away the comparison for later analysis.

“I am well,” Data said and set his own hand on Geordi’s arm, to see if he was able to pet him like he did Spot. The lack of fur did not make the experience less enjoyable, but it was markedly different, and so Data concluded that the purpose of the touch was different. “Are you comfortable?”

“Yeah,” Geordi said, and Data noted that he had closed his eyes. “Yeah, this feels good.”

“Do you want to sleep?” Data asked, because Geordi’s speech had become slurred in a way consistent with sleep deprivation.

“Mmm,” Geordi said and put his head in the dip where Data’s chest met his shoulder. His weight was warm and comfortable. He said nothing further, and his breathing soon deepened and became more even.

“Good night, Geordi,” Data said, even though Geordi did not hear him. He closed his eyes and thought he better initiate his dream program. Then he might have something to tell Geordi about in the morning.


End file.
